biographical info
Lake Forest is the introspective and sometimes melancholic folk music of Will Whitwham, singer and songwriter of The Wilderness of Manitoba. Last winter, in between tours with the band, I attempted to write and record a song per day and see how long it took to get something I felt could be a snapshot of a period in time. The winter was a catalyst as every season can be. The Lake Forest name came from a place or a number of places that felt synchronistic, both internally and externally. One is a city in Illinois from Dave Egger's novel - "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius". Another is the name of a road up north near the cottage my family has had since 1979 and is also the only place I continue to have recurring dreams of. The last was an image in my mind of a frozen ground surrounded by evergreens which came to me in the form of a beautiful photograph a good friend of mine took. It then almost immediately became the album cover; a very cold, surreal and moving piece all at once.